from its emergence till present time marxist principles has undergone great changes since their promulgation by marx. many theorists and thinkers set at rectifying marxist tenets and introducing those of their own while others advocated its main concepts and attempted at improving them. among marxist philosophers who had an intensive study of marxs ideology, is louis althusser whose reflections upon marxism have remained revolutionary. althussers concept of marxist ideology stands in sharp contrasts with that of marxist humanists who advocated the humanistic aspects of marxism. according to althusser, marxist theories could be deemed anti-humanistic for their disregard of human potentiality. such anti-humanistic misinterpretation of marx robbed marxism of its revolutionary potentiality by disregarding mankind’s active role in making history. his neo-marxist ideas imprisoned mankind within an ideological system with definite roles which overdetermine human conduct and deprive him of his free will. such an overdetermined concept of self is specifically conspicuous within authoritarian governments such as stalinist regimes, which, through misusing marxist ideas, brought about terror and threat under the pretext of leading humans towards marx’s promised socialism and communism. the thesis attempts to demonstrate the failure of marxist promises and ideals in the novel, darkness at noon (1940) through the depiction of the oppressive measures of the stalinist regime in a context of violence and terror. the thesis also aims to discuss and apply marx’s portrayal of a communist society as put forward in his theory of history to the novel and illustrate marx’s failure of an ideal communist society within the stalinist regime. demonstrating the unfulfilled dream of the establishment of a communist society, the thesis also aims to illustrate how the althusserian legacy and his misreading of marx exercised a marked influence on the propagation of stalinist ideas as it degraded the active role of humans throughout history. it analyzes how such derogatory role attributed to mankind can cause passivity among the characters within the novel. it explains how the overdetermined concept of self which althusser put forward, brings about a sense of determinism and prevents a rebellion on the part of the masses against stalinist oppression.